Publishers with affiliate operations are entering the holiday shopping cycle with a blunt new reality: Organic search is no longer the reliable engine it once was.
Across interviews with revenue leads at six major media companies, a new playbook is emerging—one built on direct audiences, rigorous price scrutiny, and a monthlong deal cycle.
Here are the key shifts shaping the season.
1. Building strategies that don’t rely on Google
Affiliate teams have largely stopped assuming search will drive meaningful traffic.
Vox Media is leaning harder into original, voicey coverage and pulling back on SEO-oriented rewrites, according to Camilla Cho, its senior vice president of ecommerce.
“Search has become such a question mark,” Cho said. “So we’re focusing on formats we know our core audience values.”
Other publishers described similar moves, investing in newsletters, recirculation loops, social channels, and CDP-powered targeting to reach readers directly.
2. Treating Black Friday as a monthlong event
Holiday shopping now spans the entire month, forcing publishers to front-load coverage, expand staffing, and plan further out.
